icity.

[16] #Midge#: a gnat or small fly.

[17] #Grampus#: a whale-like fish.

East had given him the desired opening; after a seriocomic grumble,
"that life wasn't worth having now they were tied to a young beggar
who was always 'raising his standard';[18] and that he, East, was like
a prophet's donkey, who was obliged to struggle on after the
donkey-man who went after the prophet; that he had none of the
pleasure of starting the new crotchets, and didn't half understand
them, but had to take the kicks and carry the luggage as if he had all
the fun," he threw his legs up on to the sofa, and put his hands
behind his head, and said:--

"Well, after all, he's the most wonderful little fellow I ever came
across. There isn't such a meek, humble boy in the school. Hanged if I
don't think now really, Tom, that he believes himself a much worse
fellow than you or I, and that he doesn't think he has more influence
in the house than Dot Bowles, who came last quarter, and isn't ten
yet. But he turns you and me round his little finger, old boy--there's
no mistake about that." And East nodded at Tom sagaciously.

[18] #Raising his standard#: advancing, improving.

"Now or never!" thought Tom; so, shutting his eyes and hardening his
heart, he went straight at it, repeating all that Arthur had said, as
near as he could remember it, in the very words, and all he had
himself thought. The life seemed to ooze out of it as he went on, and
several times he felt inclined to stop, give it all up, and change the
subject. But somehow he was borne on, he had a necessity upon him to
speak it all out, and did so. At the end he looked at East with some
anxiety, and was delighted to see that that young gentleman was
thoughtful and attentive. The fact is, that in the stage of his inner
life at which Tom had lately arrived, his intimacy with and friendship
for East could not have lasted if he had not made him aware of, and a
sharer in, the thoughts that were beginning to exercise him. Nor
indeed could the friendship have lasted if East had shown no sympathy
with these thoughts; so that it was a great relief to have unbosomed
himself, and to have found that his friend could listen.

FRIENDSHIP.

Tom had always had a sort of instinct that East's levity was only
skin-deep; and this instinct was a true one. East had no want of
reverence for anything that he felt to be real, but he was one of
those natures that burst into what is g